Thursday, June 23, 2011

There is a small town called HuNasuru (translated as the town of tamarind), or Hunsur as pronounced, near Mysuru (Mysore) in southern Karnataka. This town popped into state level news off late due to a kidnapping of a local merchant's son along with his friend, on the day they were going to take exams. Many kidnappings for ransom happen across India, but something was special with these two 20 ish year olds' case.

Needless to keep you in suspense.. that's POLITICS! Precisely, Crime, Terror and Political links. Read on to get a bigger picture of why a small town near Mysore is today becoming a national news material.

In 2006, a BJP leader Sukananda Shetty was murdered in Mangaluru (Mangalore) in coastal Karnataka. Since murder of right wing politicians in India could lead to Jihadi-criminal nexus, police went in the right direction. The accused, the underworld operative Madoor Isubbu, started spilling beans and the two names that popped up were Popular Front of India (PFI) and Karnataka Forum for Dignity (KFD).

After four years, in early 2010, KM Shareef of PFI said in a public meet: 'Muslims have been denied their constitutional rights'. It would have been a routine meet demanding reservation for minorities, unless one had a vague recollection of this gentleman. Wasn't he the same KM Shareef who lashed out at Bhajrang Dal,as the leader of KFD three years back, at the town hall in Mangaluru? So, essentially, KFD is not that different from PFI. But wait a minute.. it gets interesting as they had other avatars too in the neighbouring Kerala.

In July 2010, a bizarre hand chopping happened in Kerala. A Christian professor, lost his right hand as a punishment for his 'blasphemy' by setting a 'wrong' question in his college.

Lo behold... the same PFI was linked for this merciless incident, and the accused arrested by Kerala police. This incident caused an outrage on social networks as well as in Kerala politics. Everyone from right to left condemned the undemocratic 'sharia' punishment in a democratic country. However, what most mainstream media outlets didn't tell Indians is that the very same PFI had launched a political outlet called Social Democratic Party of India or SDPI, that had supported Congress-led UDF coalition in Kerala, in the past several elections! Check this very alarming quote from the above link of 'The Daily Pioneer', a reputed national newspaper.

(Kerala) Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan faces allegations that PFI activists had campaigned for him in Thalassery in the 2006 Assembly election.

Needless to elaborate, most big name media outlets, shamefully, hid the link between PFI being an election supporter of Congress party in Kerala, during the professor hand chop incident. You can draw your own conclusion as to why :)

Moving ahead; before the Kerala elections of 2011, police chargesheeted 27 PFI guys. One more opportunity for the 'mainstream' media of India to tell the people, which political party had the support of these guys.. But no hype at all!

Now to this month's shameful incident. The same Congress/UDF supporters in politics, KFD kidnaps a rich student near Mysore in June 2011, with his friend. It's known now that one of the key accused had known knew the father of Sudheendra (21) and planned to extract Rs.5,00,00,000 ransom after calculating the business cash flow. The other student Vignesh (20) was also abducted to remove the trace of evidence.

When ransom discussions, even after many calls (30-40 SIMs used it seems) failed, KFD murdered the students. They had tried to hide them in Tamil Nadu too, but had failed. Yesterday, police arrested 6 murderers belonging to KFD (supposedly merged with PFI alias SDPI).

Alleging that the outfit might have links with terrorist organisations, Ashoka said he would discuss the matter with Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and top police officers on whether the KFD could be banned. “I took personal interest in the case as it was a prestige issue for the go­ve­r­nm­ent and the police dep­artment. The government will set up a special court, request for a special public prosecutor for speedy trail,” Ashoka said.

While providing details about the KFD, police sources said the six arrested are active members of the outfit and operated from its Mysore and Hunsur branches. The KFD, a senior police officer said, works on issues related to minorities and backward communities and several of its activists were allegedly involved in communal riots in Mangalore and Udupi.

On August 15, 2010, some KFD cadres made an attempt to hoist the flag of a neighbouring country. Adil and Ataulla Khan were involved in nearly four cases each of murder and attempt-to-murder. They were in Gulbarga prison for three months and later managed to obtain bail, Ashoka said.

Sum up the murder of a Mangaluru BJP member, the hand chopping of a Kerala prof and the current murder of two Mysore students. Do you also wonder by now, why the 'secular' media is not hyping these, particularly the political connections that are apparent to a routine follower of news? If you scratch your head and recall, a far more trivial pub incident from Mangaluru was hyped 24*7 on national networks for months, as the accused were by pro-Hindu groups :)

For years its known at the local level, that the banned terror outfit SIMI has reincarnated as KFD and PFI - There were open calls for their ban too. But no ban happened resulting in this tragic loss of lives of students :(

There are two take aways:

Either the Mysore killers are not belonging to Congress political allies PFI, if we have to believe PFI's statements. In this case, the Karnataka BJP home minister has a lot to explain why he is considering the ban on KFD.

OR

These killers are from the same KFD/PFI/SDPI/Congress political ideology. In that case, will 'RSS more dangerous than SIMI' Rahul Gandhi spend time visiting the Mysore grieving families?

Let's wait and see how things unfold.. If you know more intricacies of this tangle, which media doesn't talk much, share in the comments for others' benefits.

Monday, June 6, 2011

First an honest confession. I have not been a big Baba Ramdev fan. I did watch a couple of Kapalbhati and related Pranayama videos in 2008.

Tried to practice a bit of Yoga (Pic credit: yoga-by-ramdevbaba of Blogspot) in 2009, but stopped as my passion is mostly into running & other types of exercises. There ended my following of Baba Ramdev.

But in 2011, a few events unfolded which can be linked as follows. Mind you, this is a lengthy blog, but I believe it's worth the time and effort, as there is a whole new perspective you will get when you get to the end of this blog entry:

A. March/April 2011:
The first one is Anna Hazare and Janlokpal mass movement taking off. This caught the nation's attention and I also attended a couple of JanLokPal events in Bengaluru.

At the time of writing this blog, there was a deep mistrust between UPA government and JanLokPal backers like Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejrival. Anna's team stopped the fast due to assurances given by the government, which now seems to be not that credible at all. Keep reading.

B. April 2011:
The second being the next and decisive inning of the anti-corruption crusader, Subramanian Swamy's prosecution requests. After Raja being in jail, with Karunanidhi and his family being chased, he made a decisive move on April 15th 2011, sending a 206 page request to prosecute the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. As she holds a cabinet rank position due to NAC leadership, an approval from the Prime Minister is necessary. What really shocked me is that the majority of the big name TV media outlets like NDTV and CNN-IBN, blacked out this request. CNN-IBN for instance reported Karunanidhi's prosecution request, and Chidambaram's prosecution statement to the PM. But censored the April 15th prosecution request to Dr.Manmohan Singh!

Dear Sir:
1. Ms.Sonia Gandhi MP, wife of the deceased Rajiv Gandhi, was first appointed as Chairperson National Advisory Council [NAC] in May 2004. She resigned in 2006 but was re-appointed by an Order of the Cabinet Secretariat dated March 29, 2010, read with Order dated October 8, 2010 [Annexure 1].
2. As per Order of May 31, 2004 [Annexure 2] the Prime Minister’s Office will provide Central Government funds to meet the expenditure of the NAC, and service the NAC for its secretarial needs. Hence she is a public servant as defined in Section 2 ( c ) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (1988).

Check the link provided above for further details on this request. The salient point in the long prosecution request, which is sitting on no-less person's table, than the Prime Minister of India, is about Sonia Gandhi's alleged black money in foreign accounts. Bofors is being extensively covered if you go through the details.

C. May 2011:
I was fortunate to learn further about the black money underground economy, who are the big guns, how badly it is affecting Indian economy, remarkable difference between domestic/foreign components and worse.. how it is literally killing the hungry poor in villages. S. Gurumurthy of New Indian Express and Prof. Vaidyanathan of IIM Bangalore, were instrumental sources of this info. One of my online friend, @giteshdev on Twitter, blogged the same using info sent over several tweets, which became an instant hit with 1000+ likes on the same day :)

It was quite obvious by now that any fight in India against black money or underground economy or secret Indian accounts in tax havens like Switzerland, would deeply shake the political establishments, particularly the topmost names ruling India. By any stretch of imagination, it will NOT be easy, no matter how big your supporter base is.

D. June 3, 2011:
Now Baba (Swami) Ramdev makes his big entry. As I mentioned before, I was only having a casual focus on his move, but my interest started growing when I saw a systematic effort by the left-liberal dominated media of India to discredit him.

Leading the bandwagon was Sagarika Ghose, the daughter of a DD director, niece of a SC justice and niece of an ambassador. It was funny to see her speaking for 'elitists'. Then the other usual suspects like Pallavi Ghose and Nidhi Razdan. There were numerous others too, including the Congress party 'dignitaries'. So I decided to explore a bit further on why they are picking so much on Baba Ramdev and precisely the support from RSS he is receiving. Is RSS such an untouchable?Let's see some RSS and Baba Ramdev quotes and facts:

"RSS is my heart's work. Don't be disturbed by uncharitable comments. Country is standing in need of your services" - Field Marshall Cariappa

When Baba Ramdev calls for harsh punishments for the corrupt, his detractors are focusing on the 'harsh' part, losing sight of 'corrupt' :) My rule of thumb was formed by this point.. If Digvijay Singh, Barkha, Nidhi, Pallavi and Sagarika oppose someone in tandem, that targeted person MUST be pro-Hindu! Also, 90% of those who are on to finding faults with Ramdev's money, land & sayings, will keep quiet when asked about Sonia's prosecution request:)

By now, even the UPA Government was firing all cylinders with their own PR work against Baba Ramdev. Mahatma Gandhi fasted 17 times in his career. A party that calls itself a Gandhian party, dislikes Anna & Ramdev's fasts.. Got exposed! I was wondering; Dear Congress, you are now asking THIS guy to speak against Baba Ramdev & Ramlila Satyagrah? THIS anti-national Digvijay Singh? (picture source: Flickr) The whole world is convinced now about 26/11 being carried out by Pakistan based terrorists and here is the general secretary of India's ruling party diverting attention from Pakistan to India's (in fact world's) largest volunteer organization? How pathetic!

E. June 4, 2011:Baba Ramdev's massive fast with over 50,000 peaceful, non-violent volunteers at Ramlila Maidan, Delhi. (Pics: Rediff). I saw plenty of women, children and men, including many from the vast Gangetic plains of North India, assembling in a peaceful manner. One picture here shows 30 housewives from Haryana. What was visible among the cheering patriotic crowd -- massive care for Bharat, from the masses! The crowd by no stretch of imagination had anything resembling a violent mob or riot crowd as it was later blamed by Delhi police.
The first thing in the morning is again lots of media and Congress party noise. Why is Sadhvi Ritambara sitting with Baba Ramdev? Haha.. Teesta Setalvad, a certified liar & LeT terror plot supporter, can be in Sonia Gandhi's NAC drafting major bills, but Ritambara can't fast with Ramdev? Jai Ho 'Secularism'! When an anti-India convict out on bail, Binayak sen can become a member of planning commission, why can't Ritambara fast with Ramdev? Did Sagarika question Sonia on her NAC including a communal Syed Shahabuddin, the foreign invader encroachment supporter at Ayodhya? Her weak eyes could only see Ritambara on stage but not one Maulvi sahib alongside.

Mumbai's 5000 dabbawalas, the world's most efficient group (Six Sigma level) in terms of delivery percentage, fully supported Baba Ramdev's fast. The 2,50,000 sq.ft. pandal at Ramlila Maidan was probably more sq.ft. area than the combined area of ALL English media offices in India! So while Baba Ramdev's team was chanting, seemingly paid media was fully ranting :)

F. June 5, 2011:Just after midnight: Then the unbelievable thing happened. When we all went to sleep thinking that the UPA government is serious in continuing its negotiations, a midnight brutal & violent crackdown happened on the 50,000 plus people fasting with Baba Ramdev. Just like June 1975 when Advani & Vajpayee were arrested at midnight by dictator-like Indira Gandhi, in Jun 2011, her daughter-in-law started what sounded like an Emergency 2nd innings. It was a murder of Democracy and a betrayal of faith in peaceful protests.

When I caught up with news late morning, Santosh Hegde, the Lokayukta of Karnataka was on TV stating; Midnight arrest & brutality is not just a violation of Swami Ramdev's constitutional rights, but also a human rights violation. I was shocked as I started following the events further.

Digvijay Singh was a gone case as usual. He crossed all civility barriers and called Swami Ramdev a thug. If Baba Ramdev was a 'thug', why did FOUR of Sonia's ministers greet him at airport the prior day? Of course, he wouldn't answer such things. I was like.. dear Rahul Gandhi, if there was day in your adult life to be deeply ashamed of being an Indian, then 5 Jun 2011 is that day. Thanks to your mom!

By then Sushma Swaraj, @SushmaSwarajBJP on Twitter, was tweeting about Rajbala from Gurgaon in ICU. She was brutally beaten on back. Her spine's fractured. She's paralysed for life. Terrible news!!

Two very well connected people in Indian political & security systems tweeted:

Ramdev episode. Crackdown was apparently ordered by Sonia advised by Diggy. PM was trying to placate. Lesson: party rules over govt.

I was shocked. How could Sonia Gandhi issue such a ruthless dictate, as two very influential people are informing the public? Jun 4 1989, communist China cracked down brutally at Tiananman sq.: Jun 4 2011 midnight, "Democratic" India repeated it at Ramlila maidan! Anti nationals like Arundhati Roy & Syed Geelani can speak in Sonia's city against India, but not arrested. But a patriot Ramdev Baba at Ramlila calling for repatriation of black money which is a duty of every Indian for the betterment of India? Midnight arrest!

Arun Jaitley came on TV slamming: "For Congress party's general secretaries, the world's worst terrorist is Bin Laden Ji.. but a peaceful Ramdev is a thug!". We could draw two conclusions by then:

India under Sonia: NAC membership for Liars like Teesta.. Midnight Arrest for Patriots like Baba

Then Baba Ramdev appeared on TV. "This brutality confirms that Mrs.Gandhi doesn't respect this nation's young girls, ladies & elderly women" - Baba Ramdev told in his press conference. He continued: "If anything happens to my life, Sonia Gandhi and her Congress government will be FULLY responsible": Baba Ramdev at his Haridwar Press conf. Baba Ramdev is making the most serious accusations against Sonia Gandhi, in her entire 13 yrs of political career. Jun 5, 2011 must have been a historic day! Of course emotions were involved, so we need to give benefit of doubt to both sides on the accusations part.

But what bothered me were many other things:

Even a colonizing British govt let Mahatma Gandhi to fast for 21 days, twice! But a 'democratically' elected Congress govt doesn't let for 24 hrs :(

A 2 AM Delhi Police brutality against WOMEN, in an India with a President, speaker, leader of opposition & coalition govt chief being FEMALES!

Lies and Blatant Lies of the Government and Delhi Police: Delhi Police chief is openly lying on TV. Watch this minute by minute Ramlila video:

What was the urgency to end this Satyagrah at midnight using Delhi Police's brutal force?

Who is responsible for lathi charge on unarmed, fasting and mostly sleeping, women and children?

Why wasn't there any ambulance available at RamLila grounds even when Delhi police planned violence?

By then it was shockingly clear as the entire country was in disbelief, except fringe support to Congress brutality from 'secular' corners. Was it just me or someone else was also seeing that those Twitter 'secular' folks tweeting for Binayak Sen's human rights were totally missing on this day :( There were some Indian media 'celebrities' who went to Egypt to cover "people struggle" against an oppressing regime. Wasn't Delhi nearer to cover?

On 15 Aug 1947, Nehru had proclaimed: "At the stroke of midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will AWAKE to life & freedom". It was happening, 64 years later as the entire country started protesting the brutality at Ramlila maidan, against unarmed peaceful fasters.

G. June 6, 2011: Day after the midnight police brutality at Ramlila Maidan:

The first thing that caught my attention was Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi saying there was NO lathi brought inside Ramlila. Can you find a bigger liar than him among 118 cr Indians? (of course except Digvijay)

By then the most important news of the day came through: Great! Supreme Court issues notices to Home secretary & Delhi Police secretary & commissioner to explain Baba Ramdev eviction. Fantastic!

Then it was time to expose some other remaining lies of the UPA government's propaganda machine:

Sonia's minister Kapil Sibal said no injuries. But doctors wrote this extremely depressing comment which indicated that someone is losing all 4 limbs to paralysis, most likely as a result of violence at Ramlila maidan :( (Pic: Tehelka)

Kapil Sibal ji said there was 'no lathi charge'.. was this Delhi Police team playing dandiya then? (Pic: NDTV)

What was this Ramdev supporter's crime? Being Indian? (Pic: Tehelka)

Sonia and Manmohan must answer WHY a peaceful fast was brutalized at midnight! (Pic: NDTV)

If you really read till this point, also checking out most of the links provided, you will get an idea. Ramdev will carry on with his struggle with vigour now. The government will get harsher as they are now pushed to a wall.

What a black day/night that June 5th 2011 midnight was really for India's vibrant democracy! Thousands of Indians who voiced their opinion against black money hoarded abroad, got humiliated and their rights got violated using the most filmy reasons.

My sincere hope is that such democracy killing incidents should never happen. India is too precious and its people have struggled too hard to earn the freedom. Let's work together to get back the billions and billions of $ of Indian black money hoarded abroad.